Festive Mix-Up
by cleotheo
Summary: Hermione entrusts Draco to sort the Christmas presents for the manor, but with a bit of help from his best friend, things don't go according to plan and there's a slight mix-up with the presents on Christmas Day. Fun, lighthearted festive one shot.


**A/N - The Last of my festive one shots for this year. Again, it's lighthearted and fun, so I hope people enjoy it.**

* * *

The week before Christmas, Hermione Malfoy took her two children, ten year old Scorpius and five year old Lyra, to visit their grandparents in the muggle world. Normally, her husband Draco would have joined them, but she also wanted to do a bit of last minute shopping in the muggle world, so Draco had opted to stay behind. He wasn't a fan of shopping at the best of times, let alone in the busy muggle streets where he still didn't quite feel at ease.

Draco had been hoping that by staying behind he would have a peaceful relaxing day, but his wife had other ideas. Before leaving the house, she'd given Draco all the presents that they would be taking with them to his parents' house on Christmas Day and a list of who they were for. Fortunately, Hermione had also bought several gift boxes for the presents, and all Draco had to do was neatly pack the presents in each box and label them.

Once Hermione and the children had left, Draco settled himself in the dining room with the presents. Laying the boxes across the length of the table, he began to get organised. First he wrote out all the tags and stacked them in a pile, corresponding with the order the boxes were placed on the table. Now all he had to do was go along the line and stick on the labels in the correct order once the presents were packed into their boxes. Hermione had also equipped him with fancy tissue paper and shredded paper to line the boxes and make the presents look extra nice, so he decided to do the task using magic. Thankfully with magic the job didn't take long and Draco was soon faced with nine perfectly wrapped boxes waiting for their tags.

Draco had just picked up the tags to stick them on the presents, when he heard the floo network sound from the floo room. Carefully putting the tags back down on the dining room table, he headed off to see who was visiting him. Only certain people could floo into the house without first having to call, so Draco knew it could only be a handful of people. The options were his parents, Blaise and Daphne Zabini, Harry and Ginny Potter, or his godfather, Severus Snape. When Draco entered the room, he found his visitor was his best friend, Blaise.

"Hi Blaise," Draco greeted. "I wasn't expecting you today."

"Daph's taken the kids shopping, so I thought I'm come and see if you were free," Blaise replied. Blaise and his wife Daphne were the parents of Scorpius's best friend, Alex, who was only two days younger than Scorpius, and six year old Lexi.

"As it happens I am," Draco said. "Hermione's taken the kids to her parents and then muggle shopping."

"And you thought you'd skip that," Blaise laughed. Despite being married to a muggleborn, Blaise knew that Draco still struggled in the muggle world as he didn't quite feel as though he fit in with the muggles.

"Of course," Draco said with a smirk. "I can think of better ways to spend my Saturday afternoon than traipsing around the shops."

"So you thought a nice relaxing afternoon was a better option," Blaise remarked.

"I did, but then Hermione left me to sort the presents for the manor," Draco replied. Blaise had been considered part of the family since their Hogwarts days, so he and his family would be at the manor on Christmas Day, along with Severus. "I'm nearly finished though. Go through to the dining room, and I'll grab us some drinks."

While Draco went to grab some drinks, Blaise headed into the Malfoys dining room. On the table he found nine identical boxes. Chuckling at Hermione and her organisation, Blaise grabbed one of the boxes to try and take a peak and see if he could work out who it was for since all the boxes were unlabelled. Unfortunately, Draco had sealed the boxes, so Blaise couldn't see what was inside. Putting the box back, Blaise's hand brushed against the neatly stacked pile of tags, sending them fluttering to the floor. Cursing quietly, Blaise bent down and swept the tags into his hand. Making a neat pile of them, he then placed them back on the table and backed away just as Draco returned and handed him a cup of coffee.

"I'll just be two minutes," Draco said, placing his own coffee down to one side and picking up the tags. Using his system of starting at the far end, Draco attached each tag to the correct box, before stacking the boxes in a couple of Christmas bags Hermione had left for him.

"You're so whipped," Blaise chuckled as the two friends headed towards the front room. "Hermione has you wrapped around her little finger."

"She does not," Draco protested. "I think you'll find, I'm the one who has her wrapped around my finger."

"Yeah, right," Blaise snickered. "Face it Draco, your wife has you exactly where she wants you."

"Or maybe she just has me right where I want to be," Draco countered. "Besides, you're one to talk. Daphne has you well under control."

"I did take some taming though," Blaise retorted with a wicked grin.

Draco laughed in response and the pair soon got caught up in laughing and joking with one another, the presents in the dining room forgotten until Christmas Day.

* * *

As they always did, Hermione and Draco spent Christmas morning at home with the children. Scorpius and Lyra spent the morning opening presents, before they got ready to go to the manor for Christmas lunch. Having lunch at the manor with Draco's parents, his godfather and the Zabinis was a tradition that stretched back to when Draco and Hermione had first gotten together. Hermione hadn't been sure on having Christmas lunch with the Malfoys initially, but Lucius and Narcissa had always made her feel welcome at the manor and these days she always looked forward to it.

"Do you have the presents?" Hermione asked her husband as they got ready to leave.

The presents they were taking to the manor were for Lucius, Narcissa, Severus, Blaise, Daphne and their children. There was also a small present each for Scorpius and Lyra so they didn't feel left out when Draco and Hermione were handing presents out.

"Right here," Draco answered, gesturing to the two bags he already had placed beside the fire.

Hermione nodded as she turned round and stalked over to the door. "Scorpius, Lyra," she cried up the stairs. "Come on, we're going to be late."

"Coming Mum," Scorpius called back as he appeared at the top of the stairs.

Hermione watched with a wince as her son barrelled down the stairs at top speed. Thankfully she had charms on the stairs to avoid either of her children suffering a nasty fall, but it always amazed her that Scorpius had never fallen down the stairs before now. From the moment he'd started to walk, Scorpius had all but ran everywhere. He was a speed demon, and he was always in a hurry to get to wherever he was going. Thankfully his sister was more relaxed and she trotted down the stairs at a more sedate and careful pace.

"Come on, sweetheart," Hermione said, holding her hand out for her daughter. "Your grandparents will be waiting for us."

Lyra obediently took hold of Hermione's hand and accompanied her through the floo network. Scorpius followed his mother and sister, while Draco and the present brought up the rear. At the manor, Scorpius and Lyra had no sooner removed their coats than they took off towards the living room. Hermione and Draco followed their children at a more leisurely pace, and when they arrived in the living room, Scorpius and Lyra were already poking around under the large tree in the corner of the room.

"No presents until after lunch," Draco informed the pair as he deposited the bags he had under the tree.

"We're just looking," Scorpius replied, picking up a present with his name on and giving it a shake. "Cool, a book about dragons."

"How do you know it's a book about dragons?" Draco asked with a frown.

"It's clearly a book," Scorpius said, waving the present in front of his father's face. "And I'm guessing dragons since they're my favourite."

"Scorp, what's this?" Lyra asked, passing a small box over to her brother.

Scorpius picked up the box and gave it a quick shake. "Pencils," he answered, handing the box back to his sister.

Draco shook his head in bemusement, and left his son guessing what the presents were under the tree. Scorpius actually had quite a good knack at figuring out what was in each present, so no doubt by this afternoon when they actually opened presents, he would know what to expect from his grandparents.

While Scorpius and Lyra were exploring the presents under the tree, Draco wished his parents a Merry Christmas and settled down on the sofa next to Hermione. Shortly after they'd arrived, Severus turned up with his presents, swiftly followed by the Zabinis. Blaise and Daphne also had a few bags of presents, which they stacked under the tree. Alex and Lexi were only too happy to join Scorpius and Lyra in exploring the wrapped presents under the tree, and the four children were quite content until Narcissa announced lunch was served.

Christmas lunch was served in the large dining room, and as ever it was a spectacular affair. Thanks to Hermione's efforts the Malfoys house elves were now all free, well paid elves. However, they were still devoted to the family and Hermione knew that they loved nothing more than whipping up fancy meals like the one in front of them. Lunch consisted of roast turkey with all the trimmings, followed by steaming Christmas pudding with vanilla custard.

By the time everyone returned to the living room they were all stuffed and most of the adults wanted nothing more than to curl up for an afternoon nap. However, with four excited children in the house a nap just wasn't possible, so instead they focused on exchanging gifts. Lucius and Narcissa started the gift giving, although most of their gifts were for the four children. Scorpius and Lyra may have been their only official grandchildren, but they considered Alex and Lexi part of the family so they got almost as much as the two Malfoys.

"You really shouldn't have bought so much, Narcissa," Daphne remarked, gazing at the array of toys and clothes her two children had opened off the couple they thought of as grandparents.

"It's a grandparents jobs to spoil the children," Narcissa replied with a smile. "And you know Lucius and I love Alex and Lexi like our grandchildren."

"I do know," Daphne said with a nod. The Malfoys had embraced Blaise into the family a long time ago, and as such they now considered her and the children just as much a part of the family.

"Lyra, do you want to help me hand out our presents?" Draco asked from across the room.

Lyra jumped at the chance to show off her rapidly improving reading skills, and she handed the presents round in record time, never getting one name wrong.

"She's going to be a little brainbox," Narcissa chuckled affectionately as Lyra settled down on the floor with her present.

"She is," Draco agreed proudly. Scorpius was also exceptionally bright, but Lyra had more of Hermione's ability to apply herself so Draco was expecting her to achieve great things when it was time for her to go to school.

"Ugh, what's this?" Scorpius's disgusted cry cause everyone to turn to look at the blond boy, who was sitting staring into his opened box with disgust.

"Scorpius?" Hermione queried, taken aback by her son's response to the small present she'd picked out to bring to the manor for him. Her son was not an ungrateful child, and she'd never seen him react so badly to a gift anyone had ever given him.

"Fairy tales," Scorpius muttered, gingerly plucking the sparkling pink book of fairy stories from the box. "I don't read fairy tales, Mum. Firstly, I'm ten years old, I'm growing up. Secondly, I'm a boy, not some stupid girl."

Hermione stared at the book in her son's hands, but before she could respond and inform him that he must have the wrong box, Alex distracted everyone by giving a whoop of joy.

"Check it out, Scorp," Alex cried excitedly, pulling a very expensive bottle of firewhisky from the box he was holding. "Firewhisky."

"Firewhisky?" Hermione muttered, staring at the bottle of expensive liquor she'd bought for her father-in-law clasped in her godson's hands.

"I think maybe the boxes have been mixed up," Narcissa said gently.

"No, it's my box," Alex said, showing everyone the tag that was clearly addressed to him.

"I gave them out right," Lyra insisted as she tore into her own box. "Wow, a dressing up necklace."

Hermione's mouth dropped open in horror as Lyra plucked an emerald necklace from her box and draped it around her neck. The necklace was not a cheap dressing up one for her daughter, it was a real emerald necklace made especially for Narcissa.

"Sweetheart, that's not for you," Hermione insisted gently as she removed the necklace from around her daughter's neck and placed it back in the box before it got damaged.

Lyra glared at her mother and pouted at her, but Hermione refused to be moved. Taking the necklace away from her daughter, she plucked the firewhisky out of Alex's hands and gathered the fairy tale book which Scorpius had discarded. She then turned to Lexi, only to find the six year old sitting staring in confusion at a set of rare potion books. The set of books were for Severus, and of course, at only six year old, Lexi couldn't possibly understand them.

"What have you done, Draco?" Hermione demanded, putting the books with her other gathered gifts.

"What do you mean?" Draco asked.

"Why are all the presents wrong?" Hermione demanded. "For a start, I did not buy my ten year old godson a bottle of firewhisky."

"Shame," Alex muttered. "I'm dying to try it."

"Not until you're seventeen," Daphne said to her son.

"Nor did I buy my daughter a genuine emerald necklace, or my son a fairy tale book," Hermione continued, glaring at Draco in annoyance. "And poor Lexi was not supposed to receive potions books."

"I don't know what happened," Draco answered honestly.

"You've clearly messed up with the wrapping," Hermione stated. "Although god knows how you managed to mix everything up."

"I did not mix everything up," Draco argued. "I had a system."

"Well, it didn't work," Hermione shot back at her husband. "How hard is it to put a present in a box and address it to the right person?"

"My system differed from that," Draco admitted.

"How? What on earth did you do?" Hermione demanded.

"I lined the boxes up, filled them up and sealed them," Draco replied.

"And the tags?" Hermione asked.

"I'd already written them out and sorted them," Draco answered. "When I finished, I stuck the tags on the right boxes. Ask Blaise, he was there."

Everyone had been following the conversation, so everyone's head turned to look in Blaise's direction. Blaise had been quietly chuckling at his best friend screwing up the tags, but as the attention turned to him, he suddenly wasn't finding it as funny.

"What, I didn't do anything," he protested.

"Are you sure?" Daphne asked, recognising that her husband was acting guilty.

"Of course I'm sure," Blaise replied. "I didn't knock the tags onto the floor or anything."

"You did what?" Draco exploded. "But I had them sorted into an order. That's why all the presents are wrong. You messed up my tags."

"Who doesn't tag presents when they first wrap them?" Blaise argued. "This wouldn't have happened if you'd done your job right."

"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't been poking around the presents," Draco shot back. "I bet you were trying to spy on what we've got you."

"Stop it both of you," Narcissa scolded when Blaise opened his mouth to reply yet again. "You're both to blame. Draco, that is a terrible way to wrap presents, and Blaise, you should be more careful."

"Yes, Mother," Draco muttered, feeling like a naughty school boy being told off by his mother.

"Sorry Narcissa," Blaise said.

"The damage is done now," Lucius said diplomatically. "Let's open the remaining presents and try and work out who they're supposed to be for."

"First let me hand these out," Hermione said.

Taking the fairy tales book, she handed it over to Lyra, who settled down with Lexi to flick through it. Next she handed the potions books to Severus and the necklace to Narcissa. Finally she passed the bottle of firewhisky to Lucius.

"Grandpa, can we have a glass?" Alex asked, eying up the bottle that had been in his possession only moment ago.

"Yes you can Alex," Lucius replied, causing Alex to grin widely and the adults to look at him as though he was crazy. "On your seventeenth birthday," he added with a mischievous smirk.

"Spoilsport," Alex muttered while everyone else laughed at Lucius's teasing.

"Since the attention is on me, I'll go first," Lucius said. "Let's see what sort of gift my son has given me."

Draco rolled his eyes, knowing that he was going to be teased mercilessly over the next few minutes as they discovered what a mess he and Blaise had made of the tags. Sure enough the teasing began almost immediately when Lucius pulled a child's arts and crafts box from his present.

"Oh, the art of painting your own fairy," Lucius read in a sarcastic voice. "Is this how you think I spend my afternoons in the office, Draco, painting fairies?"

"Ha, ha," Draco muttered. "Obviously it's for Lexi."

"I worked that one out myself," Lucius replied with a chuckle. Carefully he handed Lexi the box, and watched as she began to explore what arts and crafts projects the box contained.

"Mother, why don't you go next," Draco suggested.

Nodding her head, Narcissa opened her box and pulled out a pair of quidditch tickets. "The Falmouth Falcons versus The Appleby Arrows," she read. "Such a great present for a quidditch fan like myself."

"You know it's not for you, so hand it over to the rightful owner," Draco said, knowing he faced a lot more comments like the ones he'd gotten off his mother and father.

Narcissa turned towards Blaise with the tickets, breathing a sigh of relief that both Lucius and Severus already had their gifts, otherwise she would be torn over who they were for. She knew Blaise was a big quidditch fan, although she couldn't remember which team he supported, but she also knew Severus and Lucius enjoyed a good quidditch match as well. The pair often caught a match when Severus wasn't stuck up in Scotland at work. But thankfully Severus and Lucius were both sorted, so the tickets couldn't be for anyone other than Blaise.

Blaise thanked his friends for the tickets, before announcing he would open the next present. Opening his box he let out a low whistle as he pulled a stunning amethyst dress out of the box.

"Nice," Blaise remarked, standing up and holding the dress in front of him. "I don't think it's my colour though, Draco. I prefer my dresses green."

"I don't know, I think you'd look lovely in that Blaise," Lucius laughed.

"Thank you Lucius," Blaise replied with a grin, playing along with the thought of him wearing dresses.

"Hand it over to your wife before you do something stupid and try to put it on," Draco ordered, although he couldn't help but laugh at Blaise's antics.

"Thank you Hermione, it's lovely," Daphne said as her husband passed her gift over to her.

"How do you know I didn't pick it?" Draco asked.

"Did you?" Daphne questioned.

"No," Draco admitted. "But I could have. I pick out clothes for Hermione all the time."

"Racy lingerie doesn't count," Lucius said with a chuckle.

"What does racy mean?" Lyra asked, looking up from where she and Lexi had been sorting through Lexi's craft box. Even though they were busy, their little ears were still flapping and they'd been picking up everything.

"It just means clothes for adults," Hermione said quickly. "You two get back to your toys. Have you told Lexi about your new craft box?"

Once the two girls had returned to their presents, and forgotten all about racy lingerie, Daphne opened up the box on her lap. Out of her box she pulled out a set of quidditch figures. Instantly Scorpius let out an excited cry, and declared that Daphne was holding his favourite team, The Tutshill Tornadoes, in her hand.

"Does that mean these belong to Scorpius?" Daphne checked.

"They do," Hermione confirmed.

"Cool," Alex said as Scorpius admired his new figures. "I got Falcons figures this morning, we can have a match."

"My boys won't mind beating yours," Scorpius said with a competitive smirk.

"In your dreams, Malfoy," Alex retorted.

"They remind you so much of Draco and Blaise," Narcissa said with a smile as the two boy's continued to banter back and forth. "So competitive."

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to win," Lucius replied with a proud smile.

"Shall I open the last present then?" Severus asked.

"Yes please, Uncle Sev," Alex cried, turning around to face the older wizard. "This present must be mine."

"I'll open it on one condition," Severus said. "You and Scorpius stop calling me Uncle Sev. You can't call me that once you start school you know."

"We know," Scorpius said. "At school it'll be Professor Sev."

"What?" Severus spluttered. "You can't call me that either."

"Relax Uncle Sev, it was a joke," Scorpius laughed. "In school you'll be Professor Snape, we know that."

"But I can't get the pair of you to stop with the Uncle Sev?" Severus checked.

"Nope," Alex replied with a grin. "You'll always be Uncle Sev."

Severus rolled his eyes, but he did so with affection. It never ceased to amaze him how much both the Malfoy kids and the Zabini kids thought of him. He didn't have a family of his own, but thanks to his friendship with Lucius, he did have a family of sorts. Draco had always been like a son to him, and he loved both Scorpius and Lyra. He'd also known Alex and Lexi since birth, and since they were part of the extended Malfoy family like he was, they were also family.

"Come on Uncle Sev," Scorpius urged. "Alex is waiting for his present."

Severus chuckled as he opened the box and pulled out a potions set. It was quite an extensive set, but it was clearly aimed at children about to start school. Even though he knew it was for Alex, he raised an eyebrow at his godson, unable to pass up the opportunity to make fun of Draco and the mess he'd created.

"Are you trying to tell me something, Draco?" He asked. "Am I that bad at Potions that I need a set for beginners? I mean, I've only been teaching the subject over half my life."

"Very funny," Draco muttered as everyone else chuckled at Severus's remarks.

"Here you go, Alex," Severus said, handing the potions kit to the ten year old. "Now that's everyone sorted."

"Yes, and I've learnt a lesson," Hermione said.

"What's that?" Draco asked.

"That you're not to be trusted with even the simplest of tasks," Hermione replied. "I mean, what sort of moron messes up people's presents."

"That sort with Blaise as a best friend," Draco argued. "If he hadn't arrived and messed with my tags, everything would have been fine."

"I'm not so sure with your method of working," Hermione muttered. "I've never heard anything as daft in my life, wrapping everything and sticking the tags on afterwards."

"It's what I've always done," Draco argued in his defence. "Besides, if you hadn't bought nine identical boxes I wouldn't have gotten mixed up. I would have known what was what by the size and shape of the present."

"So you're blaming me now?" Hermione asked, arching an eyebrow at her husband.

"Not blaming exactly, just pointing out how things could have been different," Draco said diplomatically. "It might not have happened if the boxes hadn't been the same, and it definitely wouldn't have happened if Blaise hadn't disturbed my tags."

"Or it might not have happened if you wrapped up like a normal person," Hermione said.

"And that," Draco reluctantly conceded. "I'm sorry Hermione. I'll make it up to you."

"How?" Hermione asked.

"Let's just say there's an extra present waiting for you at home," Draco answered, giving his wife a saucy wink.

Hermione chuckled lightly as she wrapped her arm around Draco and gave him a quick kiss. He might have messed the presents up, and she might have to make sure she took charge of things like that in the future, but she wouldn't change him for the world. Draco was the love of her life, even if he was an idiot at times, and Hermione wouldn't have to any other way. Nor would she want to spend Christmas with anyone other than the wonderful family that was present at the manor. Her life was good, and despite the confusion with the tags, it was a great Christmas, enjoyed by all.

 **The End.**


End file.
